


Observer

by hyosgardens



Category: ONF (Band)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Multiverse, Tags May Change, based vaguely on the mv lore for we must love and sukhumvit swimming, cowboy hyojin... yeehyo, does anyone actually know what's going on in the mvs, minkyun-centric, seungjun is mentioned, shoutout to everyone who bullied me into posting this i think the number went up to seven of u, wyatt and his tuktuk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29539167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyosgardens/pseuds/hyosgardens
Summary: Minkyun watches the fate of his friends repeat over and over, and then he watches as things start to change.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 18





	Observer

Eight months.

It had been eight months since he had last seen the others. Together, at least. He missed being part of a whole.

The memories kept him up at night. Snatches of vibrant laughter would echo in his ears as he searched for any sign of them. The Multiverse was a large place.

Sometimes he would let himself indulge in the past. He'd let the feelings and memories crash over him like turbulent waves in a storm as he drowned in regret. He rarely let himself feel remorse, was better at keeping on his feet. Keep going, keep moving. _We have to keep moving._

He had no role to play, besides watching the others remain stuck in a time loop from which he was somehow excluded. It was part of the glitch, he assumed. When everyone jumped—desperate to save their youngest—they had given no second thought to the consequences of their actions. A costly mistake, but one of no surprise.

He kept track of them all, standing in the same locations but stuck in the wrong universe. He was virtually omniscient, only as powerful as the shitty screens that acted as windows to other worlds. None of them were happy. 

The timeline began to fray. 

The youngest glitched out of existence. He was too archaic to keep in their universe, they had known that from the start. Tried desperately to prevent the inevitable. Still, it didn't stop the burning tears that slid down his cheeks as he watched the people he loved begin to crack and fall to pieces.

Minkyun watches the end of the world again and again. So many times that it has now become nothing to him. He wonders if he has grown as emotionless as the shells of his friends that follow him through the Multiverse.

There are motifs in this symphony of their struggles. He watches the deaths of the people he has learned to love over and over and _over._ Always the gunfight, always the keys. The trains and the Box that overshadow the pathetic refrain of their lives.

The timeline resets.

He settles behind his screens, forever the omniscient observer. Yet this time, there's a flaw in the timeline. He watches as the flow of seconds comes to a halt. And then he knows he has met his match.

"Kim Hyojin."

"Park Minkyun. You've been missing for...years."

He ignores him. "You should be dead."

They stand on a train, as they always have. As Hyojin always has. This one, however, is frozen in time. The sun lights golden fires on the dust that is paused in the air. It feels weird to be seen, for his presence to be known. He wonders why it happens.

Hyojin has a grin that suggests things aren't as they seem. "Maybe I was tired of the cycle."

"How long have you been able to do this?"

"Oh," he says nonchalantly, "not for very long. Have you been lonely without us? I'm sure Seungjun would be happy to see you. It's been a while since someone's visited him."

"Does he know?"

Hyojin's smile turns sharp. "Why would I ever give him that advantage?"

"And the others?"

Hyojin hums. "Not my problem." There's a revolver balanced dangerously between his fingers.

"I see."

Minkyun returns to his screens. Watches the parallels between each timeline closely, and refuses to step foot into any. For the first time ever, he can see the other versions of himself.

The meteors come down, and the timeline resets.

He finds Jaeyoung next. The doorways he manipulates leave fascinating tears in the Multiverse.

"Do you know what you're doing?"

The man jumps. _"Jesus,_ Minkyun! Where the hell have you been?" Jaeyoung stares at him in awe, and Minkyun is once again aware that he can finally be seen.

"I've been watching. But answer me, _do you know what you're doing?"_

Jaeyoung crosses his arms and settles in the seat of his tuktuk, the one that had been a motorcycle for so many timelines. It feels severely out of place.

"I'm crossing between Universes."

"Timelines."

"What?"

"I thought you knew. You've been skipping through Universes, yes. But now you jumped into an entirely different timeline."

Jaeyoung blinks at him slowly. "Jesus."


End file.
